Machine
of loving
grace
Synthetic monitoring organism
//installation
2026
/recycled industrial waste
/kinetic and electronic setup
as materials
I am creating a series of autonomous devices that maintain tiny samples of living ecosystems. Their function is to allow a person isolated in the heart of an urban environment to encounter an anomaly: an attempted gesture of care, delivered by a control mechanism repurposed from its original use.
>>Two works were presented in 2026 as part of the Hybrid+ exhibition program at Sample in Bagnolet.
— Patch
For Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, a patch is a fragment of territory where species, histories, and ecological processes intersect; observing it allows us to understand the relationships that compose an ecosystem. A patch can be an area where a disturbance has spread, or a place where unexpected interactions between humans and non-humans occur.
An ecosystem sample is collected from the edge of the installation’s area and placed at the heart of an oversized structure designed to artificially maintain its living conditions by regulating several parameters—humidity, light, and air circulation. The mechanisms that enable this operation consist of synthetic materials derived from reused and recycled industrial waste, assembled in a way that deviates from their original purpose.
As the installation deploys over time, its mechanisms enter into contradiction with the dynamics they seek to sustain. The system persists, but gradually produces unstable conditions in which the maintenance of its integrity and its alteration coexist.
The object lies in this interval: a space where the attempt at preservation encounters its own limits, and where any form of conservation already implies a transformation.
Both an act of care and a process of control, Machine of loving grace becomes an attempt at interspecies coexistence, reflecting the multiple influences humans exert on their environment through technology.
